PERC 2010 Abstract Detail Page

The essential characteristics of energy are not typically an explicit topic of physics instruction. Nonetheless, participants in physics courses that involve energy are constantly saying what kinds of thing they think energy might be, both verbally and nonverbally. The premise of an embodied-cognition theoretical perspective is that we understand the kinds of things that may exist in the world (ontology) in terms of sensory-motor experiences such as object permanence and movement. We offer an example of an "embodied learning activity" about energy: that is, an activity in which we deliberately arrange for human bodies to symbolize entities in physical phenomena involving energy transfers and transformations. Our observations suggest that this "Energy Theater" uniquely promotes engagement with deep conceptual questions about energy.